Christmas Gifts 2011

Well, another year has come and gone. These are some of the Christmas gifts for 2011.

Although only three sets of coasters are shown there were six sets total. The coasters are all White Oak. To make the bases I used White Oak, Cherry, and Walnut. The ones in the photo are for out of state family. You can see from the pics that I had to make a punch in order to cut out the corks for the coasters. As you can see I used my belt sander to put a 25 degree bevel on what once was an idler pulley. The inside diameter of the pulley turned out to be the exact size I needed for the corks. Having made the punch I proceeded to make a bunch of cork Pringles. They did not taste very good.

One project I forgot to get a picture of was the White Oak TV tray that I made for one of my sisters. It was modeled after a typical wooden TV tray. It was the first Christmas gift I made.

The blanket chest was for my folks. This build started at the begining of summer. Because of school I had to work on it when I could. The final touched were applied on Christmas eve. I had planned to create a video series that covered the build but that didn’t work out. Some of you may recall a blog that I posted concerning the warp that the lid developed. It was a pretty bad warp and I was concerned about how to address the issue. A big thanks to all who gave me ideas that would address issue. In the end I didn’t have to do any thing to it. I can’t explain it but the lid flattened out on its own. This allowed me to attach the piano hinge without problem.